Sen. Ron Wyden on Wednesday expressed confidence that he and his fellow Oregon lawmakers will be able to pass a bill establishing a new management plan for logging in the 2.8 million acres of land once owned by the defunct Oregon & California Railroad.

Wyden said the failure of the bill would be "absolutely unacceptable." But he also made it clear that he has some major differences with the version of the bill sponsored by three Oregon congressmen, Democrats Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader, and Republican Greg Walden.

Wyden's chief concern with the House bill is that it would place 1.6 million acres of O&C land into a trust that would be managed by the state. Wyden likened that to a privatization plan for federal lands that would put them beyond the reach of federal environmental laws.

"The track record for privatizing huge swaths of federal land is not good," said Wyden, adding that this concept simply could not win approval in the Senate. However, he did suggest that he supported some limits on legal actions against logging.

"You ought to be able to raise a concern about a timber sale," he said, "but you don't have a constitutional right to a five-year delay."

Wyden has previously talked about producing his own version of an O&C bill next month. Rural counties in Western Oregon hope a new law could reverse the decline in logging and provide a big economic boost for their areas.

Environmental groups oppose the House bill, saying it would reverse progress in restoring damage caused by massive clearcutting in previous decades. And they are waiting to see whether they can support Wyden's version.